Almost forty years after her death, the grave of Mother Mary Bonaventure was blessed with special visitors from the other side of the world. 

Last week, Mother Bonaventure’s niece, Kathryn Riley and her partner Luca, visited the three graves at the now-closed Monastery of the Holy Ghost in Bendigo with the assistance of Diocesan Archivist, Dr Donna Bailey. “It was a very poignant day for me,” reflected Kathryn.

Kathryn Riley was a “babe in arms” when her mother took her to meet her paternal Aunt, “Molly Riley” at the Mother House of the Poor Clare Colettines in York, England. It was 1953, just before, Mother Bonaventure, with seven fellow Poor Clare Sisters, left the United Kingdom to establish a new Monastery in Sri Lanka. “I was the only one of her nieces and nephews she met,” said Kathryn.

Although Kathryn was too young to remember this meeting with her Aunt, Mother Bonaventure, remained a constant influence in her life.

Kathryn’s father was only ten when his seventeen-year-old sister, “Molly” entered the Poor Clare community. Although there was little opportunity for her father and his eldest sister to become close as siblings, the Riley family held “Molly in the convent” dearly in their hearts and corresponded regularly.

“As children we would write to the Sisters, I remember receiving religious gifts like Holy Cards from Mother Bonaventure every Christmas,” says Kathryn. “When we went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and Rome we chose small gifts to send to the Poor Clares.”

Kathryn remembers her mother writing to the Poor Clare Sisters and sending financial contributions long after her father’s death. Her mother, who was an Anglican when she married, converted to Catholicism in later life. Who knows, perhaps Mother Bonaventure had a hand in this.

Mother Bonaventure

Was born Mary (Molly) Riley in Sheffield England on 6 January 1914. Mary was the eldest child of Chirstopher Riley and Grace Ellen Manton, having three brothers and two sisters. Mary joined the Poor Clare Colettines St Joseph’s Convent in York, England and was professed on 1 November 1931. With eight Poor Clare Sisters, Mary Bonaventure left York, England for Tewatte, Ragama, Sri Lanka to form a community of contemplative nuns at the request of the Archbishop of Colombo, Most Rev. Thomas Cooray. Mother Mary Bonaventure was the Abbess at the Sri Lankan Convent of Mary Immaculate from 1953 to 1965 and Abess at the Bendigo, Poor Clare Monastery of the Holy Ghost, from 1967 to 1982. Mother Mary Bonaventure died on Christmas Eve, 1985, having suffered a stroke some years earlier, and is buried in the grounds of the Poor Clare Monastery of the Holy Ghost, Bendigo.

From the book “Poor Clare Colettines Monastery of the Holy Ghost Bendigo”, Dr Donna Bailey, Bendigo, 2021. 

Photograph from the Sandhurst Diocesan Archive.